{"id":43843,"date":"2025-09-11T12:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T19:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=43843"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T19:14:07","slug":"progressives-who-reviled-charlie-kirks-politics-repudiate-his-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/progressives-who-reviled-charlie-kirks-politics-repudiate-his-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressives\u2014Who Reviled Charlie Kirk\u2019s Politics\u2014Repudiate His Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Charlie<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Kirk speaks during the 2023 Young Women\u2019s Leadership Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas on June 10, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Gage Skidmore\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnconscionable acts of violence should have no place in our country,\u201d said Congresswoman Ilhan Omar\u2014whom Kirk wanted to denaturalize and deport. \u201cLet\u2019s pray for no more lives being lost to gun violence.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep 10, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s assassination<\/a> of far-right firebrand Charlie Kirk in Utah drew widespread condemnation from many of the same progressive figures who have previously decried his rampant bigotry, dismissal of gun deaths, and promotion of conspiracy theories including the \u201cstolen\u201d 2020 election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPolitical violence has no place in this country. We must condemn this horrifying attack,\u201d Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.) said<\/a> on the social media site X. \u201cMy thoughts are with Charlie Kirk and his family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley<\/a> (D-Mass.) said<\/a> on X that she was sending \u201csincere condolences to Charlie Kirk\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cViolence is unacceptable, always,\u201d she added. \u201cThough I disagree with nearly everything he said publicly, I never lose sight of others\u2019 humanity. He was someone\u2019s son. He was someone\u2019s husband. He was a father to two young children. Praying for the [Utah Valley University] community impacted by this horrific act of gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another \u201cSquad\u201d member, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar<\/a> (D-Minn.)\u2014whom Kirk wanted<\/a> to strip of her US citizenship and deport to Somalia\u2014posted<\/a> that \u201cpolitical violence is absolutely unacceptable and indefensible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnconscionable acts of violence should have no place in our country,\u201d she added. \u201cLet\u2019s pray for no more lives being lost to gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirk, the 31-year-old CEO and co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University. The assassin\u2019s identity is still not known; The Washington Post<\/em> reported<\/a> that \u201ca person of interest is in custody and being interviewed by officials.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirk\u2019s last words were a characteristically racist attempt to deflect an audience member\u2019s question about US mass shootings\u2014one of which occurred<\/a> at a Colorado high school on the same day as his assassination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony of Kirk\u2019s murder was not lost on numerous observers, some of whom posted video<\/a> of him saying in 2023 that \u201cI think it\u2019s worth to have a cost of unfortunately some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, even staunch critics of Kirk and his politics in the United States and abroad condemned his murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is never any place for violence in our politics,\u201d ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe only way to work out differences in a democracy is to work them out together\u2014peacefully through our political system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe ACLU condemns this horrific act and extends its sympathies to the family of Charlie Kirk,\u201d Romero added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scottish lawmaker and former First Minister of Scotland Humza Yousaf said<\/a> on social media that \u201cI couldn\u2019t have disagreed more with Charlie Kirk on virtually every political issue he debated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut that is the point, he debated,\u201d Yousaf added. \u201cIn any society, let alone a democracy, violence can never be justified. I hope God eases the suffering of his wife, children, family, and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Civil rights attorney and transgender rights activist Alejandra Caraballo was among those who expressed deep concern over the direction in which the nation is heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in a \u2018years of lead\u2019 scenario where political violence has become normalized,\u201d she wrote<\/a> on the social media site Bluesky. \u201cThis is not good for anyone and is deeply dangerous. This level of political violence is not compatible with a functioning society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m honestly terrified of what the right will use this as justification for,\u201d she said of Kirk\u2019s assassination. \u201cThey\u2019re itching to engage in violence against their enemies and this will give them the excuse to do so. This is why political violence is never acceptable. It just descends into uncontrollable chaos and more violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction: This article has been corrected to remove a quote\u00a0erroneously attributed to Kirk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Kirk speaks during the 2023 Young Women\u2019s Leadership Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas on June 10, 2023. \u00a0(Photo by Gage Skidmore\/Wikimedia Commons) \u201cUnconscionable acts of violence should have no place in our country,\u201d said Congresswoman Ilhan Omar\u2014whom… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43843"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43844,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43843\/revisions\/43844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}